The present invention relates generally to a breast milk absorbent pad adapted to be inserted between a brassiere and breasts.
There have already been proposed breast milk absorbent pads comprising a liquid-pervious sheet facing the wearer's skin, a liquid-impervious sheet facing away from the wearer's skin and a body fluid absorbent core. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-178805 (Reference 1) discloses paired breast milk absorbent pads each comprising a basic pad consisting of an absorbent unit for absorbing body fluids and a water-proof member affixed to the outer side of the absorbent unit. Stretchable/contractible members provided along upper and lower edges of the absorbent unit provide contractible forces so that the basic pads may develop three-dimensional shapes adapted to shapes of the respective breasts. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-332178 (Reference 2) discloses a breast milk absorbent pad of so-called long from side to side type comprising a film layer and a water-absorbent layer bonded to each other so that this continuous laminated sheet may be folded to cover both breasts.
During a nursing period, breast milk is constantly secreted and consequentially an amount of breast milk accumulated in a lacteal gland often overspills from nipples. Furthermore, breast milk is also released from the nipple of the breast when the feeding of a baby is not taking place due to inevitable physiological phenomena. With the widely used paired breast milk absorbent pads in which the individual pads are separated from each other as disclosed in Reference 1, the amount of released breast milk may often exceed the absorption capacity of the pad and seep through the pad.
During a nursing period, a mother sometimes lies still alongside her baby to breast-feed the baby for example when the baby cries him-or herself to sleep at bed time. In such situation, a coupler means of the brassiere has previously been released and therefore its retaining ability for a pad is no more present. As a result, the higher breast that is not being used for breast-feeding and the pad are subjected to a downward directed force such as the weight of the breast that is being used for breast-feeding. However, the breast milk absorbent pad fastened to the brassiere or clothes does not droop together with the breast and this breast alone droops until it is exposed from the pad. The amount of breast milk released from the nipple of this breast may flow down along the wearer's skin and often the clothes may be contaminated with such breast milk.
According to the breast milk absorbent pad disclosed in Reference 2, both breasts 130, 131 can be covered with the single pad 110 and a chest region defined between the breast 130 and the breast 131 is also provided with the absorbent means as will be apparent from FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings. In this way, a total area of the absorbent means is larger than that of individual pads that are separated from each other by the chest region and overall absorption capacity also is higher than that of the individual pads. Furthermore, any anxiety that breast milk flowing downward might leak out along the chest region defined between the breasts 130, 131 can be effectively alleviated.
However, the breast milk absorbent pad 110 has a transversely longer elliptical shape having a transverse dimension substantially corresponding to a shoulder width of the wearer and has no means in the chest region defined between the breasts to distinguish the respective breasts from each other. In other words, this pad lacks a three-dimensional shape adapted to the respective breasts. As a result, the breasts 130, 131 are not stably held within the breast milk absorbent pad 110 and any significant movement and/or posture change of the wearer may cause positions of the respective breasts 130, 131 to get out of proper positions vertically and/or laterally relative to the breast milk absorbent pad 110. In particular when breast-feeding is carried out when the wearer is lying on her side, the unused breast may droop downward (i.e., toward the breast being used for breast-feeding). The nipples 130a, 131a are no more in contact with the inner surface of the breast milk absorbent pad 110 and the amount of breast milk released from these nipples cannot be absorbed by the pad 110. Eventually such amount of breast milk may flow down along the wearer's body and contaminate the clothes.